So You Wanna Be Disruptive?
Dear wannabe disrupters: You don’t have to destroy entire ecosystems nor condemn 99% of your fellow citizens to government cheese lines in order to change what needs changing. You don’t have to throw the baby out with the business plan.
Case in point: Choreographer William Forsythe‘s tour de force 1987 ballet, In The Middle Somewhat Elevated, turned the then stuffy classical ballet world on its ear using — surprise — classical ballet! Granted, Forsythe and his dancers seriously messed with classical ballet, pushed steps off center, emphasized interstitial elements and odd, often extreme, angles and extensions. They played with ballet’s rhythms and flow and added modern dance elements. But they remained faithful to classic forms.
Originally created for the Paris Opera Ballet, In the Middle, Somewhat Elevated is a theme and variations in the strictest sense. Making use of academic virtuosity, it extends and accelerates these traditional figures of classical ballet. By shifting the alignment of positions and the emphasis of transitions, the enchainments begin to tilt obliquely and receive an unexpected drive that makes them appear at odds with their own origins.
William Forsythe
The result was breathtaking for an audience inured to convention. Dancers faced upstage instead of at the audience. Familiar steps, taken beyond traditional limits, were seen in an all new light. Sylivie Guillem, a standout dancer among the young thoroughbreds pulled from the Paris Opera Ballet corps to create and perform In The Middle…, shattered prima ballerina norms with superhuman agility, flexibility and power. She’s since become known as one of the greatest dancers of her time.
Guillem and the other dancers used their mastery of classical ballet vocabulary and forms to push steps and movements into more extreme and exposed territory. The effect was mesmerizing and (ballet) world shattering. But if anything, the shockwaves the piece sent across the dance world put more dancers to work with its invigorating effects launched from within one of its longest standing institutions.